On the morning of the 27th of the first month of the thirteenth year of Chongzhen, Yang Zhen sent Shen Yongzhong to lead people to Ningyuan City. On the one hand, he reported to the Jiliao Governor's Mansion on the appointment of the new Songshan regiment training chief officer, and on the other hand, he also went to pick up Hong. The author and his followers.

Although the ice conditions on the west coast of Liaoning have begun to loosen, the floating ice on the sea surface from the sea off Songshan to the sea off Ningyuan is still serious, making it still impossible to dock and sail.

Yang Zhen could only send people to pick up Hong Chengzhuan and his followers, board the ship from the ice port that was blasted off the coast of Songshan, and first go to Lushunkou together, and then send people to follow him south to Fujian.

In the morning of the same day, Yang Zhen once again summoned the generals at the Songshan General Military Mansion, and publicly requested the imperial edict, as well as the official and military personnel jointly signed the seal of the General Military Officer Kongzha. Witnessed by Yang Chaojin, the minister in charge of the army, Yuan Jin, deputy general of the Juehua Island Navy, was formally appointed as the chief military officer of the Jinhai Town West Road Assistance Guard, and was ordered to station in Juehua Island in summer and autumn, and in Jinzhou Bay in winter and spring.

Yuan Jin, who had already regarded himself as a member of Yang Zhen's command, immediately accepted the order happily after hearing Yang Zhen's arrangement.

At this point, Emperor Chongzhen awarded Yang Zhen four letters of the Six Letters to the General Soldier to be used to reward meritorious generals.

Emperor Chongzhen told him that he would rather be deficient than indiscriminate. However, under the current situation, he wanted to win the hearts of his generals and give them status and voice. The position of the co-defendant general could not be saved at all.

Take Yuan Jin for example. If Yang Zhen hadn't deceived Hong Chengchou first and said that he had appointed Yuan Jin with the general air letter jointly issued by the Ministry of Civil Affairs and the Ministry of Military Affairs, then would he have been able to keep Juehua Island water in the end? Teacher, that’s all.

And if Yang Zhen does not give Yuan Jin this position, but Hong Chengchou takes the lead and appoints Yuan Jin as the commander-in-chief of Juehua Island, then whose command will Yuan Jin follow in the future?

As far as the public is concerned, when the imperial edict is issued, it will not be up to Yang Zhen or Yuan Jin's personal choice.

Personally speaking, we are all adults, and it is not enough for you to just mention friendship and feelings.

Is friendship useful?

Sometimes it is useful, but in the face of interests, especially huge interests, it doesn't work.

After Yuan Jin was officially appointed as the chief military officer of Jinhai Town West Road, Yuan Jin's status in Yang Zhen's army was no longer embarrassing, and he officially became a naval officer under Yang Zhen.

After appointing Yuan Jin, Yang Zhen took the air letter on the spot and appointed Qiu Zhenhai as the deputy general of the Jinhai South Road Naval Battalion, and put Yu Liangtai's navy and Yan's three navy under the control of the Jinhai South Road Naval Battalion.

At the same time, Yang Zhen also made a major adjustment to the city defense of Songshan City.

Except that the west gate was still under the direct control of Xia Chengde, Liu Wanzhong was ordered to follow him to move the defense, then Deng En was ordered to take over the south gate, Fan Chenggong was ordered to take over the north gate, and Yang Zhan'ao and Yu Keji were ordered to continue to be in charge of the east gate.

The next day, at noon on the 28th of the first month of the thirteenth year of Chongzhen, Shen Yongzhong led Hong Chengzhuan and his party from Ningyuan City to Songshan. Yang Zhenyi joined them and formally handed over the Songshan General Military Mansion to Xia Chengde.

Afterwards, he said goodbye to the generals who had stayed behind in Songshan to see him off, and escorted the carriage of Qiu Bihan and his maidservant on horseback to the Anchor Bay Boat Camp Pier. He stepped on the ice near the sea and boarded a brand new ship as scheduled. Left Matsuyama.

On the sea surface within a few miles of the coast of Songshan, there are still piles of solidified ice accumulated layer by layer.

But at the ice port where the ship temporarily docked a few miles away, there was a mixture of ice and water.

Ice floes, large and small, float on the sea, constantly hitting the hull with the wind and waves.

More than 400 ships, large and small, gather on this sea of ​​ice and water, with their masts standing tall, making it a spectacular sight.

Before the fleet returned, a large number of food, weapons, military supplies and supplies in Songshan City that were to be moved to the defense had been transferred to the Anchor Bay Ship Camp several days in advance.

After two days of loading day and night, it was already ready. As soon as Yang Zhen arrived, the whistles on all the ships became louder. They raised their sails one after another and left the still-frozen lake in accordance with the predetermined formation.

Offshore ice.

Yang Zhen got on the boat and followed the leading fleet to the southeast. After more than ten miles, the floating ice on the sea began to become less and less. A dozen miles further south, there was already a vast ocean.

At this point, his hanging heart finally settled down.

This time when the defense was moved, he asked the fleet to transport a large amount of equipment and supplies first, so as not to cause any accidents.

In order to transport these supplies across the sea first, Yang Zhen had to ask a large number of people who were accompanying him to stay in Songshan to wait for the next batch to cross the sea.

Zu Keyong, Lu Pinqi, and Xu Changyong have taken away more than 2,500 people and thousands of war horses and camels.

However, there are still many troops inside and outside Songshan City who have been prepared to move to the other side of the sea. All in all, there are more than 7,000 people.

Among them were some reserves from the original advance battalion for the Eastern Expedition left in Songshan City, a sentry of musketeers led by Zhang Chen, and the remaining 400 brave men recruited from the Xuan Mansion by Yang Dagui and Jie Lizhu.

At the same time, there were also about 300 craftsmen from the Songshan City Iron Works Branch led by Wang Sheng and some handymen, escorting a large amount of ordnance and supplies with the ship.

In addition, there are also the family members of the Qiu family, the family members of Lu Pinqi and the soldiers who moved to the defense.

Of course, the largest number of people were Liu Wanzhong's troops who Yang Zhen insisted on taking away, and a large number of his tribesmen who moved to Songshan with them.

There are more than 4,000 of them alone, young and old, men, women and children.

There is no way to transport so many people across the sea at once.

Even if the fleet that came to Songshan this time included thirty newly repaired ships with a cost of 200 pieces, they still could not transport all the people, horses, supplies, military supplies, and equipment across the sea at once.

Therefore, Yang Zhen could only choose the most important personnel and equipment to be transported first, and had to ask Liu Wanzhong to lead his troops to wait on the Songshan coast for a period of time.

The new ships added to the fleet led by Yuan Jin and Qiu Zhenhai were large ships built by the Jinzhou Shipyard built by the Manchu Tatars.

The construction of these large ships in Jinzhou Shipyard was carried out by Xu Erxian, Duduo, Darhan, Shen Zhixiang, etc., which accumulated countless timber, spent a lot of gold and silver, and mobilized hundreds of shipbuilding craftsmen from the Manchu and Qing Dynasties.

When it was about to be completed, it fell into the hands of Yang Zhen and others.

Of course, Yang Zhen was not aware of this before.

Because after they captured Jinzhou City, they quickly pretended to be Tatar reinforcements and went south to Lushunkou. While staying in Jinzhou City, they did not send troops to collect the troops garrisoned on the piers near Jinzhou City and in Jinzhou Bay.

shipyard.

After taking Port Arthur, Yang Zhen took a boat with a group of important Tatar prisoners and crossed the sea back to Songshan within a few days.

The Jinzhou Shipyard and a large number of semi-finished warships that were about to be completed in the shipyard were discovered and taken over by the fleet heading north to Jinzhou Bay after Yang Zhen left.

It wasn't until he boarded the ship when he led his troops to move the defense, that Yang Zhen found that he was actually riding a tall, brand-new ship with 200 materials, and he asked where such a ship came from.

After asking, I learned that there was such a harvest, and I was immediately overjoyed and called God to help me.

And it was only at this time, when he thought about the past, that he really figured out why Hu Changhai, Gao Chengyou and others were so nervous after learning about Shen Zhixiang's large-scale shipbuilding in Jinzhou Bay, and why they were so anxious to send troops.

Already.

Because, once these warships are successfully built, the days when Hu Changhai, Gao Chengyou, Hu Dabao and others lived freely on the west coast of the Liaodong Peninsula will be gone forever.

Of course, when Yang Zhen learned about this situation, he himself was secretly grateful.

Because, once he fails to seize the southern tip of the Liaodong Peninsula first, once Shen Zhixiang is allowed to build a large number of warships in Jinzhou Bay, and once the Manchu Tatars have their own navy, then Yang Zhen's overall plan will be in danger

Already.

At least, at that time, it will not be that easy to rely on the strength of the navy to roam the sea and attack the rear of the Tatars anytime and anywhere.

Seeing that Yang Zhen was very interested in Jinzhou Shipyard, Qiu Zhenhai, who was riding a big ship with Yang Zhen, said to Yang Zhen: "The Governor does not know something. Although this Jinzhou Shipyard is in the early stage, its scale is very large, and its plans are also very big.

.Only the 200-material warships and the 100-material warships alone were built, and hundreds of them were started at the same time.

"Fortunately, they are all in our hands now. If we had delayed sending troops to Jinzhou and Port Arthur a year and a half later, the Manchu Tatars would have had a navy immediately. The consequences would have been very serious.

!”

Hearing what Qiu Zhenhai said, Yang Zhen nodded in agreement, then lightly stamped the deck of the new ship under his feet, looked at Qiu Zhenhai and asked:

"So, how do you allocate these new ships?"

"Distribution? Oh, the governor is not in the army, how can we all distribute it ourselves?!"

When Qiu Zhenhai heard Yang Zhen's question, he was stunned for a moment. Then he quickly understood the true intention of Yang Zhen's question and quickly added:

"These new ships were originally semi-finished products from the Jinzhou Shipyard. In November, after we took over, we all knew that the governor was in a hurry to use the ships, so we asked the craftsmen in the shipyard to select some that were almost completed and worked day and night to ship them

It's built.

"This time we are going to Songshan to welcome the governor to move the defense. We need more ships, so we will include these new ships that can be used for testing. As for how to distribute the new ships in the future, we have to wait for the governor to decide."

Yang Zhen has been away from the main force of the army for nearly three months. The thing he is most worried about, besides the Manchu Tatars retaking Huizhou and other places, is that the generals in the army are out of control.
Chapter completed!